SCO Mozart's Last Three Symphonies Usher Hall Edinburgh 29th January Review
Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Mozart's Last Three Symphonies at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh tonight was obviously a popular music programme choice with audiences, and one of the few times that a whole evening of music by the SCO has been given over to one composer.
These three symphonies, Numbers 39, 40 and 41, are often performed together and as a trio they very neatly fill the programming timing space of an average performance, and it is in some ways almost as if they were designed to do so by Mozart himself. Here, three symphonies of four movements each do in many ways support the theories of many people that Mozart had created something entirely new for his listeners, one large performance arc of music.
To counter-balance this theory though, others point out that the musical connection of dots that you would expect to connect these three symphonies together, some interweaving connective grander pattern, are simply not there. The truth is, no one but Mozart had the answer to this question, and he left no notes, no clues for us to follow. Perhaps this is what he really wanted, people to make up their own mind, use their own imagination? One thing is certain though, and that is that Mozart, in these three very different symphonies, was a genius, at the height of his musical abilities as each of these symphonies, in its own way, is taking music away from the then conventional norm.
We do know one thing about these three works, however, and that is that they were not written for commissions. For a composer like Mozart whose very financial survival depended on commissions for works or, when he could find it, employment within the field of music, creating work for no immediate financial reward was not a productive use of his time. This has led some people over the years to come to the conclusion that Mozart wrote these three works for himself.
All three of these symphonies were written in 1788, a hugely musically productive time for Mozart, but for some reason the fact that this was three years before his death in 1791 (b 1756) seems to fascinate so many people, and often far more is written into the creation of these works than they deserve. One thing is clear, and that is that Mozart was still creating a vast variety of new works and continued to do so until 1791. In 1788 Mozart had no intention of dying and no plans for these to be his final three symphonies, no triumphant grand goodbye to us all in music.
Musically, these three symphonies have been the subject of so much research, speculation and analytical musical dissection and analysis over the years that there is really little, if indeed anything, that can be added to that and there is just not the space here to do anything more than a broad overview of all three works here.
These three works were performed in order by the SCO tonight, and the opening, symphony 39 in E Flat Major, is with its characteristically rich flowing Mozart melodies what many people today would still associate with the composer. By 1788 Mozart's popularity with the fashionistas of the day was waning and the well-paid commissions that he was used to were getting harder to find and I wonder if this was maybe a "work in hand" created in the hope of new commissions.
By contrast, Symphony 40 in G minor is something very different. Not only is it one of only two symphonies that Mozart ever composed in a minor key, but here he is at times playing with the very structure of what was then not only considered a symphony, but music itself. Despite this, the opening first movement with its, for the time, unusual mood setting introduction, is one of the most recognisable in classical music. Beethoven was also a great admirer of symphony 40.
With symphony 41, Mozart completes what could so easily be a symphonic song cycle, but when taken across all three works, everything here has a far more personal to the composer and emotional resonance than to be expected from this time period. This is really the concept of a composer not just creating a technical work from a set of musical rules, but one creating and expressing their own inner feelings.
This music may be over 200 years old now, but the smiles on the faces of the SCO musicians and Maxim Emelyanychev as he energetically conducted this evening’s works said it all - music for simply the pleasure of making and hearing music.
Review by Tom King (c) 2026
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
These three symphonies, Numbers 39, 40 and 41, are often performed together and as a trio they very neatly fill the programming timing space of an average performance, and it is in some ways almost as if they were designed to do so by Mozart himself. Here, three symphonies of four movements each do in many ways support the theories of many people that Mozart had created something entirely new for his listeners, one large performance arc of music.
To counter-balance this theory though, others point out that the musical connection of dots that you would expect to connect these three symphonies together, some interweaving connective grander pattern, are simply not there. The truth is, no one but Mozart had the answer to this question, and he left no notes, no clues for us to follow. Perhaps this is what he really wanted, people to make up their own mind, use their own imagination? One thing is certain though, and that is that Mozart, in these three very different symphonies, was a genius, at the height of his musical abilities as each of these symphonies, in its own way, is taking music away from the then conventional norm.
We do know one thing about these three works, however, and that is that they were not written for commissions. For a composer like Mozart whose very financial survival depended on commissions for works or, when he could find it, employment within the field of music, creating work for no immediate financial reward was not a productive use of his time. This has led some people over the years to come to the conclusion that Mozart wrote these three works for himself.
All three of these symphonies were written in 1788, a hugely musically productive time for Mozart, but for some reason the fact that this was three years before his death in 1791 (b 1756) seems to fascinate so many people, and often far more is written into the creation of these works than they deserve. One thing is clear, and that is that Mozart was still creating a vast variety of new works and continued to do so until 1791. In 1788 Mozart had no intention of dying and no plans for these to be his final three symphonies, no triumphant grand goodbye to us all in music.
Musically, these three symphonies have been the subject of so much research, speculation and analytical musical dissection and analysis over the years that there is really little, if indeed anything, that can be added to that and there is just not the space here to do anything more than a broad overview of all three works here.
These three works were performed in order by the SCO tonight, and the opening, symphony 39 in E Flat Major, is with its characteristically rich flowing Mozart melodies what many people today would still associate with the composer. By 1788 Mozart's popularity with the fashionistas of the day was waning and the well-paid commissions that he was used to were getting harder to find and I wonder if this was maybe a "work in hand" created in the hope of new commissions.
By contrast, Symphony 40 in G minor is something very different. Not only is it one of only two symphonies that Mozart ever composed in a minor key, but here he is at times playing with the very structure of what was then not only considered a symphony, but music itself. Despite this, the opening first movement with its, for the time, unusual mood setting introduction, is one of the most recognisable in classical music. Beethoven was also a great admirer of symphony 40.
With symphony 41, Mozart completes what could so easily be a symphonic song cycle, but when taken across all three works, everything here has a far more personal to the composer and emotional resonance than to be expected from this time period. This is really the concept of a composer not just creating a technical work from a set of musical rules, but one creating and expressing their own inner feelings.
This music may be over 200 years old now, but the smiles on the faces of the SCO musicians and Maxim Emelyanychev as he energetically conducted this evening’s works said it all - music for simply the pleasure of making and hearing music.
Review by Tom King (c) 2026
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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